


A Heavy Heart to Carry

by Sarcastic_Metaphor



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Blood and Injury, Canon Compliant, Character Study, F/M, Link (Legend of Zelda) Needs a Hug, One-Sided Attraction, Possibly Unrequited Love, Selectively Mute Link (Legend of Zelda), Unrequited Love, blood but its nothing too violent or graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:41:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25425556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarcastic_Metaphor/pseuds/Sarcastic_Metaphor
Summary: When Mipha first met the boy fated to be Princess Zelda’s chosen knight, he was just that: a boy. A young Hylian child with scraped palms and a cut on his cheek below his right eye.(A study on Mipha, who watched Link grow up. She knows she loves him, she just doesn't know in what way. All she wants is for him to be happy.)
Relationships: Link & Mipha (Legend of Zelda), Link/Mipha (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 50





	A Heavy Heart to Carry

**Author's Note:**

> Hi I played botw for the first time recently and absolutely loved it. But this fic is mainly a way for me to study Mipha as a character because I didn’t like how she was handled in the game. I wanted to see more of her and why/how she fell in love with a really young guy by her people’s standards. The Mipha/Link is actually kind of one-sided, though they both care deeply for each other. I also wanted Mipha’s love to be somewhat ambiguous, so it can be interpreted as either primarily romantic or primarily platonic. 
> 
> I maybe toyed with canon a little bit to better suit the fic but not in any major way. Lastly, pls forgive me for any inaccuracies with the descriptions of sign language. I'm still learning how to translate it into writing 🥺. 
> 
> (Title from Heavy In Your Arms by Florence and the Machine)

When Mipha first met the boy fated to be Princess Zelda’s chosen knight, he was just that: a boy. A young Hylian child with scraped palms and a cut on his cheek below his right eye. 

She had gone to central Hyrule in her father’s place, one of many different ambassadors invited to King Rhoam’s annual banquet. It was by chance the weather had been unexpectedly good and fair, with the roads being easy to travel. She arrived a day ahead of schedule, though the king’s servants and guards gladly welcomed her. As they rushed to and fro, preparing the castle for its ball and feasts and many guests, Mipha came across the training grounds. 

She couldn’t remember the name of the captain of the guard, but she recognized his voice and his stern posture. On the ground before him, amongst the soldiers training and the clash of metal, was a boy. He was panting hard, his blond hair matted to his face from sweat. 

“He’s injured!” Mipha had heard herself say.

The commotion paused. The guards bowed to her as she made herself known and crossed the gap between her and the boy. He tried to bow to her as well, clumsy and with heaving breaths. 

“There is no need to concern yourself with my son, Princess.” 

Mipha did not look to the captain, didn’t even fully process his words. She knelt before the boy and took his hands in her own. He was so small, just a bit bigger than Sidon. He startled when she touched him.

“Shush, I won’t hurt you.” 

Her palms became enveloped with her soothing blue light as her healing powers came forth. The boy, with eyes already so blue and so bright, marvelled at his hands as the blood faded and skin healed. 

“You poor thing,” Mipha said, mostly to herself. She touched his face. His skin was so smooth, no grain that felt rough when rubbed against. He flinched from her at first, but calmed under the soothing effect of her magic. 

When she was satisfied, she stood and turned to the captain. Not wanting to turn a scene into something more displeasurable, Mipha asked, “Is training children common practice, Sir?”

There was no venom or disdain in her voice. Princess Mipha was known for her kindness and her healing, but beneath her voice simmered a strong distaste for anyone that would willingly hurt a child.

The captain did not meet her eye, though it was more out of respect and manner than of fear or shame. 

“He is my own son, Princess. It is in his best interest to know how to defend himself.” His eye flickered toward hers for just a moment, “And others, if need be.”

And in an instant, Mipha understood. 

A boy destined to be a soldier. A boy who would one day live to fight, as opposed to fighting in order to live. But the poor thing was still only a little boy, a child who stared at her as if she was the only light in the world. Were all his days like this, comprised of bruises and bloodshed?

“Link.” The man turned his attention to the boy. Was that his name? 

“Demonstrate your skills for Princess Mipha.”

Mipha noticed a wooden staff laying on the ground. The boy picked it up without complaint or hesitation. The captain gestured for one of the other guards to come over. 

“Please stand back, Princess.”

She did not want to watch a little boy fight. “I really would rather-”

Her words died in her throat. 

The boy- Link- he was  _ fast. _ Though not nearly as large as an adult, or even half as strong, he was agile. His footwork was confident and quick. He wove between strikes like a leaf in the wind, a fish dancing in a stream, a trained warrior with more than thrice his lifetime’s worth of experience. Hylians aged far more quickly than Zora, so this boy had to have even less time to be trained to such a degree than Mipha initially assumed. 

The fight ended with the boy still panting hard, eyes wide and arms trembling, as he knocked the training stick from his opponent’s hand.

“Impressive, isn’t he?” The captain asked, “I trained him myself.”

Mipha ignored the man beside her. She stared only at the child who stood quiet and still, waiting for his next instructions, despite the blossoming bruises on his face and arms. 

The next night, in a ballroom full of hundreds, no one noticed Princess Mipha slipping from the room. The guards and servants were dutifully quiet, not daring to oppose her. She found the boy awake and in another courtyard, as close to the music and lights as he dared to hide. No one noticed the princess of the Zora healing the little boy’s injuries. 

He mouthed something in the dim light, though Mipha wasn’t sure she heard anything.

“I’m sorry?” 

He opened and closed his mouth, as if struggling to speak. After a moment of hesitation, he brought his hands close to his chest and made an odd series of motions with them. Mipha recognized it as hand-speak, though she did not know the meaning. 

“Th...thank you…” The boy whispered, just loud enough for her to hear him.

She smiled at him. “Of course.”   
  
Taking a quick glance around the courtyard to ensure they were alone, she lowered her voice and said, “Should you ever see me again, please do not be afraid to ask me for help.”

And she meant it. Link’s eyes widened with awe, and also surprise. Perhaps even fear, though his expression was partially lost by the lack of light. He nodded to her and hurried off. It made Mipha smile, recalling all the times she had caught Sidon past his bedtime.

* * *

Link grew quickly after that. Too quickly. 

In years that felt like single breaths to her, Link went from a young child to a young man. And in that time, he had changed so much. 

After returning home from that fateful banquet, Mipha decided to seek out texts on hand-speak. Learning from papers and illustrations, however, was a far cry from the fluidity of seeing them in person. Finding herself more and more curious, Mipha sought out a tutor to learn from. What came as a shock to her was that hand-speak was not simply a code. It was not a system where one motion equalled a single spoken word. It was a living, breathing, thriving language on its own. It could betray tone and personality with speed and intensity. Her tutor demonstrated to her a conversation in a genial tone, her movements friendly and inviting. In another instance, her tutor showed her how forceful movements, coupled with facial expression, could betray anger or annoyance. 

It came to a small disappointment to her that some Zora vocabulary differed from those used by Hylians, but many of the signs remained fairly similar. 

When asked what motivated her so fiercely and suddenly to learn hand-speak, Mipha said it was so she could speak to all her subjects. They loved and praised her all the more for it. It was not a complete lie, as Mipha did come to find her hand-speak useful and enjoyable to learn. However, she hoped that her new language would help her outside the range of her domain. 

The next time she came across the Hylian boy, they were both a few years older than they once were. Link was still a child, and his eyes lit up with recognition when he saw her. He had been running and splashing with Zora children his size, though he paused once he noticed her staring. He smiled and it warmed her heart.    
  
She went over to him and knelt so they were at eye level.

“Hello,” she said. 

This time, it was an event where the Zora hosted a feast and week of festivities for all their allies. She hadn’t expected to see him again so soon, (soon for her, specifically), but his father had brought him. 

“Oh, Princess Mipha!”

Link’s father had noticed her talking to his son. The man bowed to her, armor gleaming blue in the lights from the Zora’s domain. 

“Hello, captain.” She said. 

“I apologize if my son has been bothering you.” He said, voice simmering with his disappointment, “He was not brought here to play. I intended for this to be a lesson in focus.”

He gestured for Link to come to him. Mipha watched as the boy hurried from the pool of water he had been splashing in to stand by his father. He held his hands behind his back, feet shoulder’s-width apart. Just like a soldier. 

“A good warrior knows not to stray from his objective.” 

Mipha tried to be pleasant. “It’s truly not a bother for me, captain. I do adore children, and your son is very polite.”   
  
Link beamed. His father placed a hand on his shoulder, and his smile faded in an instant. 

“Thank you, Princess. Your patience knows no bounds.”

The captain led his son away. As they walked away, Mipha could see Link’s arms, still being held behind his back. She could see the scars upon them. 

Rage was not a sensation she was accustomed to, but Mipha retired early from the festivities that night. She did not want to dance with Hylian men who tried to court her, nor did she want to partake in conversation with them. It was unbecoming of her, and she knew it. But it did not stop her from retiring early in the night, only to wander the halls of her home and walkways of her domain until she found the boy. 

Link was standing far away from the other children, one of which was Princess Zelda. The young girl was a gifted dancer, white dress twirling about her as she spun and laughed with Zora children. On the far side of the courtyard were more Hylian guards to watch the Princess. 

“You don’t want to join them?” She asked.

Link startled, shrinking away from her. He kept his head down and did not speak. It was odd that Link could apparently hear fine, but still chose to speak with hand-sign. Perhaps he could not speak?

Mipha knelt down so they were at eye level with each other. 

“Are you hurt?” She asked. 

Link did not dare to look up. He shook his head.

“N- no…”

Mipha frowned. “Can you please look at me?”   
  
Link did so, immediately, despite the discontent in his eyes that indicated he did not want to.

Mipha held her hands close, back to the guards, as if to whisper to him alone. 

_ “Are you certain?” _

Link watched her hands with rapt attention. He looked from her to her hands and back again. Then, slowly, he replied,  _ “No.” _

_ “Come with me.” _

Link did not hesitate. Mipha found them an empty room nearby. 

_ “Where are you hurt?” _

She hoped her meaning would not be lost in translation. Again, she wished she better studied the differences between Zora and Hylian hand-speak. Link seemed to understand her though, and undid the buckles fastening his short cloak around his shoulders. It fell away, and he rolled up his sleeves. His upper arms were covered in bandages. 

Mipha made quick work of them. The wounds beneath looked like Link had been struck with a blunt object to the point of breaking skin. A wooden stick, or the flat of a blade perhaps. It did not matter, not to Mipha, because Link’s wounds were soon gone, but she would have done anything to keep the boy before her from being hurt again. 

After he fastened his cloak, Link sat on the floor and removed his boots. No wonder he hadn’t taken them off, not even to splash in the shallow pools. There were more bandages. And beneath them, dozens of tiny cuts on the bottom of his feet and near his ankles. Mipha had no idea what could have caused them short of the boy running through brambles.    
  
When she was done healing him, she asked,  _ “How did this happen?” _

What had they done to him? Made him climb barefoot? Walk on broken glass? 

By then, she was fairly certain that Link could understand her without hand-speak. But to surrender it then, after she had gained his trust, felt like a betrayal of sorts. He shook his head. 

_ “Training.” _

_ “Training?”  _ She repeated, lips pursed in a dubious frown. 

Link hesitated, hands fumbling to form words. 

_ “To endure.” _

Mipha froze, wondering if perhaps there was some miscommunication between them. 

“To  _ endure?” _ She repeated aloud. 

Those did not sound like the words of a child. They sounded like words a child grew accustomed to hearing.

Link nodded.

He put his shoes back on, stood, and said,  _ “Thank you.” _

But he didn't leave, not yet. He stood still, waiting.

“You can go,” she said.

Mipha watched the boy hurry from the room. She didn’t have the chance to see him again, being swept away in the current of her many duties to her people. But she wondered if the king knew of how his captain treated the boy. She wondered why no one stopped it. As the smallest of comforts, Mipha allowed herself to wonder if perhaps Link enjoyed training. If he wanted to be a soldier, but had never said so. It wouldn’t excuse the scars and bruises, not at all, but she would have liked the idea of him having at least some say in his fate. 

And as the years passed, with Mipha seeing the boy only on rare occasions, each reunion was a shock to her. Link grew taller with each encounter. A little stronger, a little faster. Always with new scars and fresh wounds. 

Men sometimes turned harsh and cold when cruelty was inflicted upon them. But Link loved to watch the sunrise and see the light cast upon the waterfalls of Mipha’s domain. He was as elegant a fighter as he was fierce. Even as he began to shed the boyish roundness from his face, he still danced in the fountains with young Zora when his king and princess visited. 

He sometimes spoke to her with his voice, though his words were coarse from disuse. It took Mipha years to understand the pattern. Link seldom ever spoke aloud, preferring to be spoken to and do as instructed. But when they were alone, when she imagined Link felt safe, he liked to talk to her aloud. 

He told her stories from his youth and taught her new signs native to Hylian hand-speak. In turn, he marvelled at all the different signs in Zora hand-speak.

“Why?” He once asked her. 

“Why what?”   
  
“Why…. why learn?”

Mipha gave him a different answer than she gave most others. “It’s a fascinating language. And… I like to think of us as friends.”

She heard him inhale sharply.

“As such, I want to be able to talk to you the way you do.”   
  
She felt a bit silly saying it. Link probably regarded her as an ally and nothing more. Maybe as a kind older sister, if she was lucky. And it wasn’t that he was deaf, he just seldom spoke aloud, and-

He smiled and said to her, “Thank you.”

His eyes glowed like the moon, blue and radiant and not at all out of place amongst the decor of her domain. She smiled at him, her face warm.

And then so much happened in such a short time.

Link apparently saved Princess Zelda from a malfunctioning guardian, earning himself the title of her appointed knight. 

Vah Ruta was discovered deep in the depths of the Zora’s Domain. Mipha, as the pride and joy of her people, was charged with piloting it.

Link continued to train and to fight. With the different races of Hyrule banding together to unite against a common foe on the horizon, Mipha was able to see him more often. He greeted her with a smile and bow as always, but Mipha didn’t like the look in his eyes. It was one of content sadness, of one who had long since accepted their fate and carried their burdens with silent dignity. 

He became known as the one who wielded the Sword that Seals the Darkness.

Link was a far greater warrior than even she herself, with all her decades of training. But he still liked to watch dragonflies flit on the water and his appetite from his youth had yet to be tamed.

They were walking the halls of Hyrule castle once, not as allies or even as equals. They walked as a yet-to-be-man and the girl who gladly healed him, his injuries extending from scraped knees to stab wounds. But it was Link’s eyes that betrayed his inner thoughts. He wasn’t supposed to remain far from Princess Zelda. He wasn’t supposed to let his guard down. He should have been training, even if the blue in his eyes craved even a moment’s worth of good company.

“What would you have wanted to be, if you were not a warrior?”   
  
Mipha didn’t know why she asked so suddenly. Link seemed taken aback by her question. He hesitated, then said,  _ “I don’t know.” _

“You’ve never wanted to be a craftsman? Or a bard, perhaps?” 

Link shook his head.  _ “Never.” _

“You’ve always wanted to be a fighter?”   


Link paused, wavering between words and he tried and failed to sign anything coherent. After a moment, he told her,  _ “Doesn’t matter what I want.” _

“Of course it does!” She said, aghast. Link was a phenomenal warrior, and a wonderful, kind soul. He was brave and selfless to the point of recklessness. He was glutinous but never selfish, always sharing the meat he caught or the herbs he picked. He was agile and swift, and Mipha had never seen him surrender to any foe. He was a boy of few words, and yet could say so much. And-

Oh.

Oh dear.

Mipha needed some air. Or perhaps a large pool of water. She turned away so Link couldn’t see how flustered she was. 

“You deserve to have a choice, Link.” She said, “Now, please excuse me.”

And she hurried off, leaving the hero behind in her wake.

She couldn’t help but wonder what Link would have been like, had she tried intervening in his destiny sooner.

* * *

Months later, back in her domain, Mipha received a visit from Princess Zelda and her knight. They had come to see if Mipha had any difficulties piloting the Divine Beast. When they arrived, Princess Zelda was as pristine as ever. Link, in contrast, had bandages wrapped around the elbow of one arm and dried mud on his knees and boots.

When they came to stand before Mipha’s father, Muzu had been upset with Link’s subpar appearance. 

_ “Forgive me. There was a Lynel.” _

Father looked to Mipha, who knew Link’s dialect of hand-speak.

She pressed her hands to her mouth, wondering in awe how Link had, apparently, dispatched a Lynel with hardly more than a few scratches.

“He says they encountered a Lynel on the way here.” 

“Oh, one so close to the domain? Do you need to see a healer?” Father asked.

Link declined. After the formalities that came when royalty visited royalty, Link sought Mipha out just as he did when he was a boy. 

_ “Somewhere quiet, please,”  _ he requested.

So Mipha took him to her Divine Beast, where they sat in complete solitude together. The air was chilly and damp, though the sun shone in the sky. Mipha undid the bandages, uncoordinated as they were, and wondered if Link hadn’t bothered to properly dress his wounds knowing he’d see her soon. She sighed as she set to work. 

When they were removed, the gashes were deeper than expected. Mipha, as a healer, had seen her fair share of gruesome injuries. But the sight of blood still sometimes made her uneasy, as did the sight of white bone.

Link hissed when she first touched him, but soon after, his shoulders sagged and his eyes closed. He relaxed beneath her touch, smiling as he tilted his head toward the sun.

“I remember healing you when you were just a little boy,” Mipha mused. He had been so small back then. Granted, by the standards of her people, he was still small. Mipha smiled as she remembered seeing Link prod at the crabs in her domain’s streams and jump in puddles caused by the summer rains. Always with a smile on his face, but only playing when his father wasn’t looking.

When she looked from his arm to his face, Mipha could still see the faint, faint scar from the first time she had ever healed him. She’d done well to fix it, leaving only a thin, white line upon his cheekbone. Staring at him, Mipha thought he was quite handsome by Hylian standards. What she truly adored, however, was his tremendous tenacity and his smile. 

Her heart lurched. “Link?”

He opened his eyes and stared at her.

“Why did you want to be somewhere quiet? I could have healed you in the palace.”

Link bit his lower lip and looked away. He spoke, “I… I like… I like being with you.”

Those words rang deep in Mipha’s core, shattering her dam and sending her heart overpouring. She gasped, and it felt as if there was no air or water in her lungs. 

But Link was Zelda’s chosen knight. He was the one who wielded the Master Sword. He was a fighter and a dutiful hero. His destiny was to defeat the Calamity yet to come.

However, he was also the same boy who liked to pick flowers, and he was also the boy who wanted to swim with the young Zora. He was one of the few who could approach Mipha’s skill with a spear and he cherished her company as much as she did his. 

He might have long since accepted his fate as a hero, a tool, a weapon, but Mipha had not. She had an idea. An amazing, terrifying, heartbreaking, heart-soaring idea.

“Marry me.”

Link startled so badly he nearly wrenched himself from her healing hold. He blinked at her, mouth opening and closing with no sound coming out. Burning in his eyes was the question of  _ why? _

“Marry me, Link,” Mipha repeated. Her heart was hammering in her chest, her head light from the rush of blood that came with saying those words once more. She knew she should stop. She should not be doing this, but Mipha was a healer at heart. Watching people in pain was the one thing she could not do.

“Not now,” she spoke quickly, letting all her words pour out in one single wave, “No, but after Ganon has been defeated and all of Hyrule is safe. After you’ve fulfilled your duty to the land and have no further need of the Master Sword.”

Link had yet to say anything, and Mipha thought she would break under the weight of his burning gaze.

“I’m destined to be Queen one day. Likely not soon, but one day all the same. You could be my king.” She let go of his arm, freshly healed, to clasp his hand in hers, “You would be free to do as you pleased.”   
  
And at that, she felt Link move, to wrap his fingers around one of her hands. 

“You would be beholden to no one. You would never have to fight another day in your life, if you did not want to. If you wanted to live amongst the Zora, you could. I- I’d even let you live away from me, anywhere you wanted so long as you were happy.”

He sucked in a breath, and Mipha thought she was going to cry. Cry from joy, cry from fear. Cry from the pain of knowing that, even if they were to marry, he may not want to be with her. Link was a quiet boy, and Mipha could easily imagine him owning a farm or a ranch in some secluded plain. Free of the burdens he had carried since he was a small child. 

“But… what about Zelda?” Link asked, voice soft. Zelda was an ingenious young woman, and a princess of her own. And Link was still her knight. 

“After the threat of the Calamity has ended,” Mipha said, “Zelda would not need an appointed knight anymore. She could have legions of soldiers and guardians to call her own, but I will not let her keep you.”

And at that, Link moved his free hand to hold hers. His eyes shone like sapphires in the light. Mipha’s skin might have been rough when dry, but Link’s callouses felt so coarse in her hands. 

“I can marry you?” He said those words aloud, and it made Mipha see stars. She had never seen him look so hopeful before. Always, in the presence of others, he was stone-faced and quiet. 

But then, Link’s smile faded and Mipha could feel his warmth fading from his hold. 

“But… what about you?” 

“What do you mean?”

Link pulled his hands away. “Don’t you want to… wouldn’t you rather marry someone you loved?”   


And with just a breath, Link had dashed her hopes against the rocks. 

He did not know that she cared for him so dearly. He did not love her in return.

She tried to smile, for him. 

“There’s no one I care for more than you, Link.”    
  
Aside from her kingdom and her family, Mipha’s heart was entirely in his hands. 

“For you, I would do this.”

Link’s face flashed with something. Shock. Maybe fear or anger. With his lips pressed tight, he signed to her,  _ “I will not be a burden to you.” _

He stood. Where he would go, she didn’t know. They were atop Vah Ruta.

“Wait!”   
  
Mipha stood as well. “Please, consider it Link. I- I want to be with you.”

Link had always been the one protecting others. Now, it was Mipha’s turn to protect him. She took a step closer and pressed a kiss to his cheek. 

“After the threat has ended and there is no work left to do,” she said it like it was a promise. 

Link put a hand on her arm. They were so close now.

“Would you like that, Link? To have a choice?”   


He really, truly was just a boy. Yes, he was an adult by his people’s standards, but by hers, he was still so young. He had not even finished his second decade since birth. The fondness Mipha had for that small, Hylian boy was muddled with her heartache, her love, for this wonderful young man. She was unable to forget the scrapes and scuffs she once healed, and could not reconcile them with the broken bones and Lynel claws she saw him suffer from now. She didn’t know what kind of love she felt for Link, only that her passion burned with an aching ferocity in her chest. 

But was she fond of him, enough to want him by her side for the rest of his days? 

_ Yes. _ Yes, one hundred times over. 

She was crying now, head and heart too full to contain her feelings. All she wanted was for the two of them to know peace, in whatever way they could have it. Link held her close, and she was certain he would be able to feel her hammering heart if he hugged any tighter. 

“Do you want to have a choice?” She asked once more.

His hands were so warm.

He whispered to her. “Yes.”

* * *

Their plan had to come together slowly, and yet fall into place all at once. In private, she admitted to Father that she had fallen for someone.

“Oh? Who, my dearest? Which of our people has caught your eye?”   
  
And Mipha posed coy and shy, despite how much her heart hammered. 

“He is actually not a Zora, Father.”

“I see,” he said. 

When Mipha looked up, Father was smiling. 

“I can imagine, whoever it is, he must make you incredibly happy. Enough so that he has captured your heart. He must,  _ ah, _ you both must spend much time together.”

She could tell he knew, and he could tell that she realized he knew. An agreement passed between them, a blessing given in all but name.

“He is a fine warrior,” Father said, “Strong and brave. I can tell he is a good man.”

Mipha smiled and said, “He is. Thank you, Father.”

And of course, she could not keep a secret from her precious Sidon. She went to his room one day to tell him, actually excited to reveal she had an intended in mind. Her little brother was ecstatic to find out that Mipha wanted to marry, babbling about the wedding and food and when and where and _ goodness,  _ he was such an excitable child when he wanted to be. 

She laughed and pulled him close so he’d stop doing flips in the shallow water of his sleeping pool. They sat at the edge of his pool together.

“Muzu is gonna be so mad at you,” he said. 

“Why’s that?”   
  
Sidon laughed. “Because you’re gonna marry a Hylian!”

She hadn’t said Link’s name at all, only alluding to a man she liked. Has her true feelings been so obvious? Or had Sidon gone through her diary again?   


Regardless, she pressed a finger to her lips and shushed him.    
  
“Muzu doesn’t know yet. It’s a secret for now, okay?”   
  
Sidon nodded, “Okay!”

When Mipha made to leave, Sidon asked, “After you get married, can he teach me archery?”

She paused, again imagining Link with his quiet farm. Or Link, roaming the lands as a hero bound to no one. For some reason, it was hard to imagine him wanting to remain as a knight in yet another palace for yet another princess. 

She cupped Sidon’s face and pressed their foreheads together. When they parted, she winked and said, “I’m sure he’d like to, but you’ll have to ask him yourself.” 

She was glad when Sidon smiled even wider. 

* * *

Mipha spent many a night crafting the armor for her intended. By then, word of her interest in someone spread from the palace servants to the guards to the tradesmen and soon, all of her domain knew their princess was in love. No one knew for certain who her heart had been captured by, both the armorers and seamstress Mipha consulted with refusing to share even a shred of information.

The Zora Armor made by the crown princess was often more ceremonial than practical, but Link was not one for excessive finery. So Mipha neglected to sew too many gems or weave much luminescent fibers into the armor. Instead, she made it practical. She made the fabric breathable, yet durable. She exchanged silver adornments for protective pauldrons and arm guards. And she endowed it with magic that would allow Link to swim faster, even giving him the ability to swim up waterfalls. It was not magic a Zora needed, and the armorer thought it odd that she wanted advice on how to sew said power into the armor, but he agreed nonetheless. 

Once it was completed, she was rather proud of herself. Soon, the day would come where Link would have to fight Calamity Ganon. Soon, he’d be faced with an impossible battle where either he succeeded, or all of Hyrule risked destruction. Not that Mipha lacked faith in Zelda, but the poor girl was under so much pressure as it was. It was no wonder she struggled to unlock her own powers. 

Not long after the armor was completed, Mipha was messaged to have her Divine Beast at the ready. The dawn that would decide Hyrule’s fate was fast approaching. 

Before joining with her other Champions to unite with Princess Zelda, Mipha locked the armor for her intended away. She would present it, simple chest and all, on the day of her formal engagement. And then Link would be wedded to her, and the idea made her both lightheaded and saddened. How cruel she was, to deprive Link of a future where he could wed someone he truly cherished. How selfish she was, to want so desperately to keep him close to her. 

When Hyrule Castle became engulfed in black smoke and the overbearing essence of decay, Mipha had been prepared to fight for her life. To fight for her people, for Link, and for the future she almost held in her grasp.

But history was never kind to its subjects.   
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thx again for reading!
> 
> I have a twitter [here](https://twitter.com/beepmareep) if anyone wants to talk to me there :)


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